Jakes Speech Testing

Jake had his last speech evaluation today. Jake has been diagnosed with Apraxia which is a speech learning disorder. Which basically means that Jake's brain has a hard time transferring his thoughts to the muscles in his mouth to make words. Another thing that kids who have this tend to use the wrong word in place of other words. Which totally makes sense because Jake does this all the time. For example Jake says "horse" instead of the word "where", he asks for "juice" when he wants "milk" so you see how confusing this could be for us. He especially has a hard time calling people by the right name. Aiden has a new nickname "neigh neigh" (yes like the sound of a horse) at our house. Jake has started calling me Ma Ma, but dad has become "Hey D". At least he's not calling him Teresa anymore:) He also calls all of the daycare kids "hey D" or "hey nana."

At the screenings they tested him to make sure he isn't behind developmentally. It seems that kids who have speech problems have many delays developmentally besides speech. The therapist says that he isn't behind cognitively (smarts) and understands almost everything that is being said to him. He seems to understand and following directions. He has good motor skills. (that's not a shocker) and he does okay with socializing with other children. The only only test score that he didn't do well in is his speech. Right now he can say about a 100 words but still has a hard time putting sentences together. Also most people have a hard time understanding him.

Jake has developed a talent for being able to ask for something without being able to say the word. For instant-we were having carrots with our lunch and he wanted ranch dressing but can't say ranch or dip. He kept pointing to the fridge and blurting out his "jake jiber jabor." I asked him if he wanted ketchup "no," he picks up his carrots and says "sis". "Do you want dip or sauce?" "yes" is his reply. I guess I have to add that I am pretty good at figuring out his demands. He is also very independent. If he wants something he will just grab a bar stool and drag it through out the entire house. Sometimes this is a pain because he gets into stuff he shouldn't be into.

One thing that the therapist suggested was teaching Jake some sign language. I was actually surprised about this suggestion because I thought that doing this would only delay his speech development even more. So about a week ago I learned some simple signs on the Internet of common words that we use daily and have started teaching him. He LOVES it. In fact he has started making up a few signs of his own. He likes to imitate me when I make the sign and thinks its a game. I have totally noticed a difference in him since I have taught him. Instead of making him repeat every word and demand him to repeat it I show him the sign and he copies me (with a smile). I still try to make him repeat the word.

Jake will be starting school twice a week in the fall. Because of my daycare they are providing a bus to pick up and drop him off at school. This relieves a ton of stress from me because now I don't have to arrange plans for someone to watch my daycare kids. He will especially love the bus ride because he absolutely loves buses!

Fun in the Sun

I just thought that it was time to update my blog. We had a great weekend with Matt's side of the family. For mothers day I was able to sleep in which I really appreciated. I don't get to sleep in very often because of my job, second my kids tend be early risers. I however had a really enjoyable Mothers Day. After breakfast I got the kids in their Sunday clothes and decided to try to get a few good pictures of the kids. I do have to say that my kids don't pose for pictures. They are all action shots. Plus for some weird reason when ever we pull out the camera Jake's smile tends to disappear and he won't look at the camera. So after 10o pictures later here are some of the better ones.





Here is a little clip at the park. Aiden makes sure that dad doesn't forgot him. He wants to be just like his big brother and dad. Aiden isn't as active as Jake but that doesn't keep him from wanting to do stuff with them. He is gutsy in his own quiet little way. (Also note his bottle in his mouth). This has become his new passy. He will keep it in his mouth like a pacifier. It is his comforter. A month ago I would only let him have the bottle when he slept and that backfired because when he would wake up he would stay quietly in his crib for hours and just suck the life out of the empty bottle-he knew that I would take it away when he was out of the crib. So I decided that he wasn't ready and will try later when he is a little older.

Vindicated on Gobblers

Another minor adventure by Matt

Made a second attempt at Gobblers. This time I was accompanied by a work friend who had never been back country before.

It rained and rained and rained, by the time it finally started to snow I was soked through to the skin everywhere, including down my boot and into my feet.

I ended up alone with Soby on the ridgeline, my poor friend had such a hard time with the equipment, that I was freezing to death waiting for him so much, so I kind of had to ditch him or get hypothermia (seriously).

On my way up Soby was wondering around as she always does and out of the corner of my eye I saw her fall through a cornice. My first thought was "on no Soby!" and took 2 steps toward the edge of the cornice, when sombody in my brain said, stop you fool you'll fall too! Luckily there was a break in the cornice line a short way up and when I peeked on the other side, there was Soby, visibly shaken up but walking and ok. She fell around 20ft, I was just glad she didn't fall on any rock, cliffs or anything else. She had a hard time coming back to me though, it was still a very steep hill, she stoped halfway and looked at me as if 'help me'. I called to her and she made it back up.

The Cornice Soby fell through, notice the "V" notch
Poor Soby dog after she climbed out of her fall zone

After she got back I continued on up the ridge line. I reached a point just near the top and I started to really get worried about Bryan, he's an intermediate skier and and a very inexperienced (winter) back country traveler. Looking ahead I saw one last hill to climb to actually peak. I was here last year and skiied off the peak, so I really didn't need to repeat that again. Somthing was telling me though, 'you need to go find Bryan'. So I got my stuff together and made may back along the ridge. After a little while I found Bryan, he was trucking up the ridge doing his best to follow my tracks. When I skied up to him I said, "Boy am I glad to see you" he replied, "No I'm really glad to see you". He told me how he was a little nervious and that he was losing my tracks in the weather. I was ready to get off this mountain at this point and helped him get ready to go. I gave him a quick lesson in skiing safely in avalanche terrain and we praticed skiing one at a time, island of saftey to island of saftey, trying to maintain a visiual at all times. This was kind of hard though as the clouds would come in from time to time and completely envlope you as you skied.

We did make it down ok, Bryan had a hard time with the downhill though, he was very tired from the apporach which only hindered him in his decent. But I really have to hand it to him, dispite all of the struggles, he said he really enjoyed it and always gave it 110%

Here's a video, my old man could be proud of ;)
(Sorry for my friends shaky hand, I think he was pretty tired)

The Dredded Doorbell

Well its that time of year, the grass is getting greener, flowers are blooming and the door to door sales men are out and about trying to get a hold of your money!

I tend to have a soft spot in my heart for these guys because Matt sold pest control during the summer we were first married. He hated it and we made okay money but in the end it was HARD, HOT and he was MISERABLE. In the summer we get them all the time and I have a feeling that they are going to be bad this year becuase of the ecomomy. I have heard every gimmick to get you to listen to there spill. (oh did you know that you can get your whole house carpet cleaned for free? Someone out there is going to give you free labor plus free cleaning products out of the goodness of their heart! I don't think so). Oh and I had one guy who got me sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- don't ask) I did fall for a basic house cleaner two years ago and I have been happy with its results. And then last year Matt and I were sold for a young European who was selling children's books. I think mostly we bought them because Matt was able to talk to him a little bit about the gospel. It seemed like a good price at first but after taxes, and shipping fees it came to be way more then we wanted to spend. So now Jake has a great set of children books at a pricey cost$$$$. ANYWAYS. . . . Most of the time when salesmen come to my door this is what happens.

I open the door and they pause for a few seconds before saying anything.

Salesmen: "Is your mom or dad home"?
Me: "No they're not."
Salesmen: "Do you know when they will be home".
Me: "I don't."
Salesmen: "Is it okay if I leave you my card"?
Me: "Sure."

It's a great way to get rid of them because I am telling them the a truth. It's actually kind of funny because I am 27 but apparently I look young enough to still be living with my folks! I guess I need to start growing up a bit.

Jacob

Jake had his speech screening last Friday and the result are in. I am not just another paranoid over concerned mother. Jake indeed has a speech problem. He passed his hearing and comprehensive test just find. Which didn't surprise me because he seems to understand everything that I say to him. Whether it is his stubbornness or he just hasn't figured it out I don't know. Normally kids will repeat everything you say, especially when you don't what them to say certain words, if you know what I mean. Well, with Jake we don't have that problem because he doesn't repeat anything we say. This is the process we are going through to try to teach Jake new words. We are trying to teach him to say our dogs name SOBY.

Me or Dad: "Jacob say So"
Jake: "So"
Me or Dad: "say be"
Jake: "be"
(we will do this dozens and dozens of times" but when he tries to put the word together that's where he has problems) so for now Soby will forever be Bobo. So as you can tell teaching him new words is almost exhausting. Especially because he DOESN'T WANT TO LEARN.

It is so frustrating because people have told us, just don't give him what he want until he says it. It's not that easy. He doesn't know how to pronounce these sounds with his tongue. I know because when he doesn't try he says "dough" and then when he does try it isn't even close to sounding right.

I have made it a rule that he has to give it a try before he can get something. So we break the word apart and make him try. Sometimes it works but most of the time he runs off and cries. He would rather go without it than endure this punishment. It breaks my heart. I really miss the fact that we really don't have little conversations together. It is a one way conversation. So the next time your little one is talking your ear off and you just wish that they would stop think twice. So I guess for now Matt and I will be called "Nana, Teresa, and Hey D"

The program doensn't start until school starts and then I will have to figure that all out. I am hoping that Jake can qualifiy for the therapist to come to my house once and week and work with him. That is the one thing that having a inhome daycare is hard about. I can't just leave! I guess I will just have to wait and see what options they have for me.

Before and After

This is the china hutch that I got for $40 bucks at the DI. I hated the doors, so I had my father in law cut me some. The hinges were such a pain in the butt because the hinges have to be on the outside of the door, because the doors are flushed but in the end result I think it turned out cute. It is missing one shelve, and I haven't decided whether to add one or not. Matt is glad that it is done because now he can have his cabinet back for cereal. Before I had this I would put all the daycare games, puzzles, you name it!

Blond Moment!

Score Board
Matt: 1
Teresa: 5000

I have finally witnessed that Matt has blond moments too. I am not a true blond, but I have many "ditsy" or so called blond moments that just amaze Matt. So the other day I became a witness to a blond moment that Matt had.

For 2 days Matt thought that the cars transmission was going out because he couldn't get the button to press down (on the stick)to switch from park to drive and so on. We seriously thought that we were going to have to get a new transmission. At work he almost got stuck but somehow managed to get it to shift into drive. Later he figured out though if he pushed the button when the key was pressed in then he could get it to press down. Two days later he confessed that he didn't have the brake pushed in and that's why it wasn't working!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHHA

Sorry Matt this is probley the first silliest thing you have done since we have been married. Normally its me pulling these stunts. I guess it just proves that all of us are human and we have our moments. Love Ya!